Home
by LilahKat
Summary: There are a few things left to fix and someone left to take home at the end of Day of the Doctor.


((Warning: The following is a romantic piece of Sarah Jane fan fiction meant as an add on to the 50th anniversary 'Day of the Doctor'. As always, it belongs to the BBC. I'm just playing in their sandbox.))

Home

The familiar scent of my begonias filled my senses as I step out into my garden and away from the sounds of Luke and his partner trying to herd a grandchild far too spoiled by her permissive grandmother.

I do so adore my little Susan.

Looking up at the stars fills me with a sense of peace. I'm retiring tonight. No more chasing aliens, no more saving the world. That will be up to them now. Up to him once more. Lifting the porcelain tea cup to my lips before the tea inside can be cooled too much by the night air, I sink into the memories of my travels as the soothing mint tea slides over my tongue.

The groaning, whirring noise of the TARDIS arriving doesn't surprise me for once as I turn to watch it materialize. I'm curious to see which of him has come to see me off and relieved when it's still the floppy haired, boy Doctor I last met. "Hello Doctor."

"Oh… Hello Smith." He steps out, still looking so much like a foal learning to walk. "So you're retiring then? I've been thinking about it myself you know."

"You, Doctor?" I chuckle. "Idle curiousity. You wouldn't make it a week."

"You never know. I could be amazing at retirement."

With a shake of my head, I know it's an argument I'll never win. Even if I did, he'd never admit it. "Well, you're amazing at almost everything else." I look up at him my eyes twinkling.

He moves closer and even with his much lower body temperature I move into him, for the warmth I tell myself. We stand together. Silently contemplating the stars. There is a sort of tension in the silence as if we both know something is about to happen, but the anticipation is almost as important as whatever is going to.

"I fixed things Sarah Jane." He says with a smile. "Everybody lived."

Somehow I know he's talking about home. His home. Gallifrey. "So you can show me finally?" I don't really expect him to offer.

"Oh, not yet. I don't quite know where it is… Not yet anyway."

I find myself giggling. "Only you could misplace an entire planet, Doctor."

"Oi…" He mock glares at me and I can only grin up at him impudently, until my grin finds its way onto his lips. "We could go for a little trip though. I think…" His smile becomes even more wide. "I think I know how to fix something else."

Fix something else. There's a part of me that wants to protest. I don't need fixing thank you. I got over you. A part of me wants to yell. Even if it's not entirely true.

The look in his eyes though. He needs this as much as he thinks I do.

I've never been able to say no to him. Not when he needs me.

The trusting young journalist, his 'assistant' at UNIT rises in me. Pushing aside the part of me that had become so much like him in later years and I slip my hand into his trustingly. Let myself trust in him completely once more. "If there's something that needs fixing, we best be off then Doctor."

He draws me into the TARDIS and I smile. This version of the old girl reminds me so much of the old days, even if it's nothing like it really. I stay back as he sets coordinates, just watching him. Somehow I know this time… This time really is the last and I need to savour it, to burn it into my memory.

The indefinable feeling of the TARDIS in flight washes over me and I close my eyes. Feeling once again as young as when I first travelled with him. Eternity and no time at all passes, and I'm not ready for it to be over.

When have you ever been ready for that, Sarah Jane Smith?

"Right then here we are…" He pulls me back to the here and now.

"So where are we?" Curiosity has me following him out the door, even though I don't want to go.

It's a white room, with a strangely familiar design to the walls. I run my fingers against the circular shapes, a soft smile coming to my lips. "Over here, Sarah Jane." He calls and I force myself away and back to his side.

"It's called Gallifrey Falls No More." He gives me a indefinable look as I'm drawn to the painting and away from him. It must be Gallifrey. Even with the obvious flames and destruction, there is something strange to this work.

A feeling of… Hope.

The sound of the TARDIS dematerializing shocks me. What is he playing at? I spin even as the blue box fades to transparent. "DOCTOR!" I yell, trying to process what he's done. Abandoning me again. Somewhere far from home.

"We meet again, Sarah Jane." A familiar voice echoes from behind me and freezes me to the spot. That voice. It can't be.

And yet.

I can't stop myself from turning to look. My eyes widen. It is him. He's thicker around the middle. The curls aren't so wild, but those eyes. Oh those eyes.

Swallowing hard. "Did he tell you anything about the painting?" He asks, as though I was always supposed to be here.

Maybe I am.

"Just the title." The words are inconsequential though. As I move to his side. He's talking but I'm not sure I'm hearing anything he's saying.

Fingertips first. The shot of electricity at our touching flows through me. Then palms, pressing together. Fingers knitting together.

The Doctor, that floppy haired boy. He was right. He was fixing something. Something I didn't realize was broken. Something I never thought I'd lost. I thought he'd abandoned me again. Hundreds, if not thousands of miles from home.

I was wrong.

He finally brought me home.

Finis.


End file.
